Arkansas finishes fourth among elite Nuttycombe field

VERONA, Wisconsin – Arkansas, ranked No. 16 in the nation, finished fourth among an elite field at the Nuttycombe Invitational hosted by Wisconsin, scoring 208 points on the Thomas Zimmer Championship 8,000m course.

Razorbacks Ernest Cheruiyot and Nick Busienei covered the 8k distance in 22:54.4 and 22:55.4 in placing 15th and 16th to lead Arkansas. Colorado’s Meshack Kipruto won the race in 22:30.1 with Pasonjo Kitonga of New Mexico runner-up in 22:30.8 while Louisville’s Elsingi Kipruto finished third in 22:31.1.

No. 1 New Mexico claimed the team title with 59 points with No. 6 Colorado runner-up with 93 while No. 7 BYU totaled 146 points in finishing third.

Behind the Razorbacks were No. 10 Florida (221), No. 8 Wake Forest (222), No. 30 Georgetown (315), No. 15 Stanford (328), No. 12 Wisconsin (356), and No. 19 Harvard (366) among the top 10 teams.

James Sankei finished third among Arkansas runners in placing 32nd with a time of 23:16.1 while Allen Bonnesen clocked 23:36.6 to place 65th and Trey Caldwell competed the Razorback team score, finishing 80th in 23:45.8.

Also racing for Arkansas were Trenton Sandler (149th, 24:12.5) and Gavin Genisio (221st, 25:34.9) among a field of 232 finishers.

SEC schools in the field included Tennessee (12th, 387), Ole Miss (26th, 645), Georgia (28th, 654), Missouri (31st, 703), and Oklahoma (35th, 912).

Arkansas will compete in the SEC Championships next at Columbia, Missouri, on October 30.